We are with Roy Lupton as he gets his hands on the Rocrow falconry flight trainer. He uses it to train his birds of prey to chase and bring down their quarry. But what exactly is Rocrow?
The company, which is based in West Wales, has been involved in falconry science since 1968. Its staff pride themselves on their knowledge about raptor breeding and conservation.
It has flying grounds adjacent to its offices and a large scale flying ground in Northumberland where test flights up to 600 metres high take place.
Wingbeat’s CEO is Dr Nick Fox OBE, an expert on falconry and a familiar face on the Middle East falconry scene. He breeds falcons for the Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Bahrain and British Royal Families.
Rocrow aims to remove, “the constraints of suitable land, we hope to see falconers across the world enjoying their falcons like never before. Our aim is to provide every falconer with the opportunity to achieve consistent high quality flights and truly optimise the performance of their falcon. When Rofalconry is combined with hawking live quarry, the effect on the falcon must be seen to be believed.”
The mechanics of the decoy have been thought about so the birds are always safe. Roy is impressed by the technology. He says: “It’s basically a remote-control plane, it has is an EDF so it has a ducted fan, so unlike all the methods we have had before, which has been a petrol engine or a propeller it’s a lot safer.
“Because with a petrol engine you have the fumes to consider and with the propeller you worry about the birds flying into the propeller. Everything is encapsulated and enclosed, it has got some superb speed and brilliant manoeuvrability. Once you start it is brilliant fun. I’m training lots of young falcons and it’s proving a brilliant little tool because you can come out and train four or five on it in quite quick succession.”
For the Rocrow, go to www.rofalconry.com/site/en/the-robara/rocrow
This item appears on YouTube in Fieldsports Britain, episode 410. To watch the whole show go to Fcha.nl/fieldsportsbritain410
